


In a Perfect World

by Misshood



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Reality, Does Jason Todd have daddy issues?, High School, Jack and Janet Drake are good parents, M/M, not really - Freeform, obviously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:28:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26207200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misshood/pseuds/Misshood
Summary: Tim and Jason are both finishing up their senior year at Gotham Academy.Life is seemingly perfect in every way imaginable. As the two meet and get to know each other, it seems that they have quite a few things in common. The most notable of which is the disturbing dreams they have been having of a much darker version of Gotham.Not working on this currently. I might pick it back up again, but probably not anytime soon.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 17
Kudos: 61





	1. Chapter 1

_ Jason could hear his heavy breathing in the helmet. He pried at the damn thing, unable to get it off. He was panicked and claustrophobic. After a few minutes of frantic movement trying to pull off the helmet, Jason finally passed over a latch that released the thing from his head. _

_ He pulled it off, throwing it to the ground. He was standing in a dingy bathroom, dim yellow light flickering. In the mirror he saw himself, but he was older. His eyes were tired and he had a scar that trailed from the corner of his mouth to his orbital bone. He also had a tuft of white hair in the middle of the dark brown that he was used to. He reached up to touch the scar, he traced over it with a gloved hand.  _

_ There was a metallic smell that he realized was coming from his glove. It appeared to be caked in dry blood. He didn’t panic, just pulled the glove off to reveal calloused fingers. He started removing his clothes. His jacket and body armor came off followed by a tight fitting undershirt.  _

_ His body was riddled with bullet holes and scars, but none more obvious and disturbing than the Y shaped scar that spread over most of his chest and abdomen. It looked like it would have been the most efficient way to cut him open and look at his insides. He retched, expecting himself to vomit in the sink, but nothing came out.  _

_ “Jason!” a voice called out to him. It was low and gravely. Whoever that booming voice belonged to was angry at him. He was pounding on the door. The panic began again as Jason’s heart started beating faster and his breath became shallow. He wasn’t sure if he should try to hold the door steady or run to the other end of the tiny room.  _

_He froze as the door burst open and a man in a suit walked in. He was probably about the same size as the version of Jason he saw in the mirror was, but that didn’t keep his towering frame from making Jason cower. Words spilled out of his mouth, but he didn’t even know what he was saying. He was too scared to even beg for mercy._

Tim and Jason are both finishing up their senior year at Gotham Academy.Life is seemingly perfect in every way imaginable. As the two meet and get to know each other, it seems that they have quite a few things in common. The most notable of which is the disturbing dreams they have been having of a much darker version of Gotham. 

He shot up in bed, and it took him a moment to find his bearing again. His mother was there. She was rubbing his back, making calming shushing noises. They knew by now there was no point in trying to wake him when he had these dreams, so she always did her best to just comfort him when she found him thrashing and yelling at night. 

“You’re okay,” She said, looking into his eyes. 

He managed to catch his breath, “I’m okay,” he repeated.

Once he was calm enough, she left the room to prepare the two of them an early breakfast. No point in going back to sleep when they would have to get up in an hour and half anyways. He got up and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He scrutinized himself in the mirror again. His face was clear, well more or less. He had a few zits and red spots, but no scar. No scars at all. 

The two of them ate in comfortable silence at their little dining room table. There was a third chair, the one that his dad would sit at when he wasn’t traveling. He was home about half of time, he would sit at that seat and ask Jason about school and eat with them. He wished he could be there all of the time, but Jason’s dad always said that it was important that Jason went to Gotham Academy and they could only afford it if he worked that job. 

Because of that, Jason made sure to focus on school. He made honor roll every year since he started going as a sophomore and when that thick envelope from Ivy University came in the mail Jason knew that he had made his dad proud.

“Maybe you should see someone.” His moms interrupted his thoughts, “ About your dreams,” 

Jason rolled his eyes a little bit at her proposal. She had mentioned it before and he couldn’t blame her for worrying. “I’m alright. It’s not like its affecting anything else. 

She nodded. She understood. She always understood. She just got scared sometimes.

After about a bit of chatting while Jason got everything he needed for school, they got in the car so that she could drop him off at gotham academy. Before he was able to get out of the car, she grabbed his forearm and tried to hide the worry on her face.    
  
“Do you go to school with someone named Bruce?”

That name… gave him a sick feeling in his gut. He shook his head. 

“You were saying that name in your sleep. You sounded so scared.”

“I’m gonna be late for class,” He told her. He was lying, class didn’t start for another fifteen minutes and she knew that, but she pulled him in for a kiss on the cheek and then let him go with a tight smile. 

\---

Tim parked his car in the lot, determined to put one foot in front of the other and get to his first period. To smile at his teachers and ace his history test. He was going to try as hard as he could not to think about the scarily vivid face of the blonde girl that had died in his arms in his dream last night. 

He must have met her before. His subconscious probably pulled that face out of some memory and stuck in a nightmare. 

That wasn’t not thinking about it. 

He smiled brightly at Miss Williams as he walked into the classroom. He was so not in the mood to listen to a lecture about King Lear, but he was resigned to his fate. 

As he set his bag down, he noticed a boy sitting in the back of the classroom. Jason was his name. He was on scholarship. Tim had heard that he was smart as hell, but had never really spoken to him before. The odd thing was that today Tim couldn’t take his eyes off of him, but eventually he sat down in his assigned seat and waited for class to start.    
  


He got the feeling that Jason was looking at him. It felt like there were holes being bored into the back of his neck, but when he turned around, he had his eyes glued to his book. Tim turned back around slowly, hoping no one would notice his odd fixation. 

If he couldn’t get his mind off of Jason. That was, admittedly, preferable to the scarily vivid nightmare that he had been having more and more often over the past couple of weeks. He could do that. He could have a fixation. Maybe even a crush. Why not? He had been diligent enough to get a place at Ivy University next year. He could drop his focus a little bit couldn’t he?

He decided he would ask Vanessa about him later. Maybe she knew a little more about him. 

She did, in fact, know quite a bit about Jason. Enough that after a few minutes Tim told her not to say anything else. If he was going to get to know Jason, he probably should learn some things on his own. 

“So,” she said once he asked for her to change to subject, “Did you have another weird dream? You seem all… weird.”

“Do you know any other adjectives than weird?”

“Hey, you’re super fucking weird. I’m not gonna sugar coat it.”

He sighed, “Yeah, I did.” 

“Were you like a grown up, bad ass again? Did you have superpowers? Was I in it?”

“No. You weren’t. But there was another girl in it. I don’t know who, but she reminded me of you. She was bubbly, ya know? And kind of an asshole.”

And she was dead. Cold, in her purple hood. He felt like he knew her.

Vanessa punched him in the arm, “well maybe don’t tell Jason about your nightmares. I’m Tim and I murder people in my dreams isn’t really a turn on.” 

“Hey,” He said. She was being way too loud for his liking, “I don't kill people and,” He lowered his voice, “I’m not trying to turn Jason on.”

“What’s with wanting to know about him out of blue then? Not to mention the puppy eyes.”

“I just…” Tim sighed, “I don’t know. I think he’s cute. I don’t know why I never noticed him before.”

  
  
  


When Tim got home that day he walked into the kitchen to find his dad sitting at the table, staring at his computer screen like it owed him something.

“What’s up?” Tim asked as he slid into the chair next to him. 

“Well the exhibit opening in Rome is being pushed up to the fifteenth and they really want us to be there.”

“You should go,” 

“You know how much your mother and I hate leaving you alone.”

“It’ll be okay. I am legally an adult and you don’t get to do this often.”

Jack sighed, “We could pull you out of school. You could come with us.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Also, I have very little interest in flying to Rome to go hang out with a bunch of archaeologists and boring investors just to come right back the next day. I will be fine by myself.”

“Alright, but you are going to have to call your mother every two hours so she knows that you are alright, okay? If not I’m going to have to deal with the worrying.”

Tim sighed a bit, but smiled at his dad. They hated leaving him alone for the weekend, let alone being out of the country for a whole week. They deserved it though and Tim liked to think he could survive on his own. 


	2. Chapter 2

Jason is heading to the library after school when he gets stopped by a hand on his arm. He turns to Tim Drake, who had been staring at him in first period for the last three days. He looks shy as hell, but approaches with an odd determination that Jason suddenly thinks he would like to see more of. 

“Tim, right?” Jason asks before he can even get a word out, “How’s it going?”

“It’s going really good,” a pause,” Um, Jason.”

Jason nodded, waiting for Tim to get to the reason he had approached him.

“I know we aren’t like friends or anything, but I was wondering if you wanted to go do something sometime? Like get coffee or something?”

Jason’s stomach flipped, “Like a date?” He said. 

Tim nodded, again too shy for the way that he carried himself. 

“I’m free now.” Jason said and Tim’s face lit up. 

Tim drove them to one of the many coffee shops in Gotham and paid for both of their drinks. Jason shot off a text to his mom, letting her know that he would be hanging out with a friend. If this went well at all she would tell him all about it, but that wasn’t really something he felt like explaining over text. 

As soon as they sat down, Jason realized he had no idea how to handle a date. He hadn’t really been on a real date before, hadn’t really remembered being interested in someone. But for some reason when Tim had approached him there was something…

He didn’t know what he was feeling, but when Tim had approached him in the hall all big blue eyes and stammering Jason wasn’t about to question it. 

“So,” Jason started, “What do you think of king lear?” It may have been bad first date talk, but their shared english class was literally the only thing he knew about Tim. They had to start somewhere.

“Oh, I don’t know really. It’s shakespeare. What do you think about it?”

“I like it a lot. It’s one of my favorite things that I have had to read for class.” 

Tim looked amused and a little bit skeptical.

“What?”

“I’m just surprised. It’s so gloomy, and full of betrayal. Shakespeare must have had some daddy issues to come up with that, I’m just saying”

“Alright, you aren’t wrong. But I like it. It’s obviously about betrayal and some fucked up families, but that isn’t all that it’s saying. Even though someone is betrayed by their father, exiled, they can still show compassion. Even when it’s to the people that fucked them over in the first place.”

Tim tilts his head to the side in a way that reminds Jason of a bird, thinking before he responds. “I like that,” He says, “But you do know that she ends up dead too, right?”

Jason chuckles and after that the conversation starts flowing. Jason’s coffee is cold by the time he gets halfway through it. Too enthralled by the boy across from him to even take a sip most of the time. 

“I feel like,” Tim says, smiling shyly, “Like we know each other. Like we’re old friends catching up.”

Jason didn’t know what to say. He just looked at Tim and there was something… Familiar was the only word that he could think of. He felt oddly comfortable sitting here with him in a way that he remember ever feeling. 

“Was that a weird thing to say? That was a weird thing to say wasn’t it?”

“No, no. I get what you mean.”

Tim didn’t say anything, just looked at him. The same way Jason had kept catching himself staring. For just a second, Tim looked older. By just a few years, but not a highschool senior. Jason must have been imagining it though. 

“Do you want to come back to my house? We could hang out there for a while.”

Tim lived across the river where all of the homes, if you could call the that, belonged to old gotham families. They were all manors and estates, miles separating one from the other. Jason had never been across the river before. He tries to remember if he knew that Tim belonged to the elite upper class. They went to school with a bunch of rich kids but not /that/ rich. 

Jason’s dad always says that old money is a lot harder to spot. He knew people who had gotten involved with drugs and gangs, and had gotten some chunk of money. That they always had something to prove. They were flashy, and wanted everyone to know. That clearly wasn’t Tim. 

Tim pulled into a two car garage that was separate from the rest of the house. 

“Wow, rich boy,” Jason teased, “You’ve got to park your own car?”

Tim blushed, presumably at being called rich. Everyone at school new that Jason was a scholarship kid, but it didn’t bother him. As they walked through The ginormous house, Jason was grateful for his little town house with his parents. Nothing matched, everything slowly accumulated from either necessity or splurges on special occasions. 

Tim led him through the mansion, answering Jason questions about pieces of art and pottery that were likely worth more than anything Jason had ever touched. 

When they finally got to a door on the second floor, Jason asked, “What’s this.”

“My room,” Tim said as he opened the door revealing what appeared to be a living room. There was no bed or dresser. Just some couches, a TV, gaming setup, and two doors opposite the entrance. 

Tim must have seen his confusion because he went red again. “This is like the, uh, sitting room. The actual bedroom and the bathroom are through there.” 

“Jesus christ Timmy, its like a fucking hotel room. Does someone leave little chocolate on the pillow as well?”

Tim giggle at that and Jason thinks that might be his new favorite sound. “Do you want to watch something?”

They picked out a movie and Jason sat far enough away from Tim that they weren’t pressed up against each other, but they were still closer than he would have usually sat next to someone. He felt like maybe he was a bit forward, but then Tim’s very warm hand rested on his knee and a bolt of electricity shot up his spine. 

He thought that was just a thing people said, but he felt it. Tim’s touch was electric. 

He lifted his arm up and paused for just a second before putting it around Tim's shoulders and before he could even question if it was the right thing to do Tim let out a pleasant, possibly unbidden, sigh. 

They both stared at he screen, and if Tim was anything like Jason, he wasn’t watching it at all. Jason saw a shift in his periphery and a few moments later Tim awkwardly launched himself towards Jason and landed over his lap. 

Jason didn’t know how to respond to suddenly being straddled, but that didn’t matter because Tim crashed his mouth into Jasons. Jason could take a hint to he let his mouth start to move slowly in time with Tim’s. He hadn’t really done this before, but figured he had to be doing just fine if Tim was letting out those little noises and Jason decided that those were actually his favorite sound. 

After a little while of that, Tim moved down to latch onto his neck and now Jason was letting out some embarrassing noises of his own. Tim kissed up from his collar bone up until he got to his ear and then gave a quick, light bite to it. 

That is when Jason realized that he had gotten noticeably hard in jeans. Tim obviously noticed too because he suddenly stopped kissing. Jason was ready to die of embarrassment. It felt like an eternity as Tim sat there, breathing heavily against his ear. Jason was about to sputter out an apology when Tim ground down onto him, making Jason moan loudly. 

His mind went mostly blank for a moment, but did let him know that if this was going in the direction his dick so clearly thought was best, he should find a bed. 

He stood up, Tim still very much on his lap. Jason’s hands shot to his thighs and Tim wrapped his legs around him. Jason wasn’t particularly strong, but Tim wasn’t particularly large so it worked out just fine. 

He made his way around the couch and to the other side of the room. Tim was still mouthing at his neck when awkwardly fumbled with one of the door knobs, only to reveal Tim’s bathroom. He got the other door open and found Tim’s bed, quickly setting him down there and kissing him on the mouth again. 

He pulled away to look tim in the eye, and when Tim blinked back up at him he realized what a complete moron he was being. 

He had met Tim all of three hours ago. Tim was his first memorable kiss and he was getting ready for what? His first handjob? Blowjob? Jason was so not ready for that. He set Tim down and backed away. He sat down on the bed, this time far enough away that his intentions, or non-intentions, were clear.

“Sorry, I got a little carried away,” Tim said, “I’ve never done anything like that before, I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s alright, It wasn’t just you. I haven’t ever done anything either. I’ve barely ever kissed anyone before.”

“Do you want to go outside? Maybe take a walk? It gets really pretty on the river at sunset.”

Walking around in the cold evening air sounded like exactly what Jason needed after that. So they went outside and there was a brick walking trail around the property. It was quite scenic, it was more clear all the way out here than it was in the city, but the pollution still caused that red haze around the sun that bounced off of the river. You couldn’t see any stars in gotham no matter how hard you looked, but the air felt clean and crisp out here. It was refreshing. 

He and Tim walked close, but didn’t hold hands. They had just met today afterall. They walked almost all the was around the estate and came back to a flower garden and they sat down on a bench. 

“It is gorgeous. That view might be worth living in that big empty house.” Jason said. 

“It isn’t bad. My parents used to go away a lot before I was born. But they stay now. It isn’t so hard when there are people here.” Tim said. Jason could here all manner of insects making quiet noises in the garden. “Plus, I heard that growing up with all that pollution takes five years off of you life.”

Jason laughed at that, and then they fell into a comfortable silence. It was nice not being in the city. He could see the lights across the lake and it seemed so much farther away than it really was. 

This time, when they kissed it was slow. It didn’t last very long, but it made Jason’s heart leap in a way it hadn’t before. 

Tim drove dropped him off in front of his house and he gave him a chaste kiss goodbye. 

When Jason approached the house he saw his mom at the window above the sink grinning. He felt like giggling, suddenly excited to tell her all about that night. 

“So,” She asked, drying her hands and then placing one fist on her hip, “What have you been up to?”

Jason grinned. People always told him that he had his mom’s smile. He told her all about the coffee and the mansion. He even told her how things moved way too fast but that he shut it down. 

“I was wondering about that hickey on your neck,” She laughed. Whenever she laughed it was like mirth was overflowing from her smile and spilling into her eyes. 

“It was weird. We were suddenly kissing and it’s like my brain shut off. I realized that wasn’t what I wanted and I stopped. I don’t know how far we were going to take it.”

“When you stopped, did he stop too? He wasn’t pressuring you at all, was he?”

“No, I think that he was in the same boat I was. We just got carried away.”

“Good. Now, when are you going to see him again?”

“I don’t know, at school tomorrow? We have first period together. Would it be weird if we hung out again?”

“Trust me, that boy did not want to see you go. The look he had on his face reminds me of your father when we were in high school. Do whatever you feel like you should be doing, and that boy will follow you, trust me..”

Whenever his parents talked about high school they acted like it was some sort of fairy tale. Love at first sight and all that. There was probably some ups and downs. Fighting and… well he could do math. Subtract his eighteen years from his mom’s 34 and you got a teen pregnancy. But everything seemed to work out so well for them. Sometimes when he was younger he would fantasize about the idea falling in love like they did. He didn’t know what was going on with he and Tim, but he was excited to see where it was headed.


	3. Chapter 3

Tim didn’t have any trouble falling asleep that night, but he only slept for four hours when he was ready to get up. He had always done that, whenever something exciting happened he wouldn’t be able to sleep for long. 

He could just lay here in bed, but he knew he wouldn’t fall asleep. He would just lay there staring at the ceiling and end up coming up with all of the ways he had maybe messed yesterday up. Why would his mind go there instead of the plenty of much more fun places it could have? He had no idea. 

He decided that a morning jog would be the best place to direct his morning energy. So he changed in to some leggings and tennis shoes. He tied the top pieces of his hair into a bun and made his way down. He looked at the grandfather clock just by the exit into the garden and saw that it was just past four. His parents would still be asleep and he had plenty of time before school. 

He made his way around the same path that he and Jason had walked last night. When he got to the garden, he sprinted the last 30 feet to the edge of the property.

When he stopped to catch his breath, his eyes locked on the large home in the distance. 

Wayne Manor. It had been the ancestral home of the Wayne family, the richest family in gotham, until their family line was cut short. Martha and Thomas Wayne had both been killed, along with their young son, in and armed robbery in the city. This had happened years before Tim was born, but for some reason when he looked at it now it felt… haunted. 

He shook his head, letting the thought leave his mind, and then started running again. 

It was nice in the morning, the sun was just starting to come up and the air was cool and biting. He ran for about another mile and then he heard someone call out. 

“Robin! Red Robin!”

Tim turned to see that there was no one there. It must have been his imagination. 

“Tim!” The voice came again, but Tim kept running. He could hear footsteps behind him, like he was being chased, but there was no one there. 

He tells himself he is just imagining it, the more he thinks about it the more he hears it. 

And then a hand on his arms pulls him to a stop and he turns to see a man. He had tired, but handsome features and there is jet black hair falling into his eyes. 

“Dick?”

The name falls from his lips and he has no idea where it came from. 

“Please, wake up.”

And then he is gone. Tim is standing looking at no one.

It felt real. 

Was it a ghost? The ghost of Bruce Wayne?

No. Dick. The man seemed so familiar to Tim. Like they had met before. Tim walked back to the house and got some water from the kitchen. He realized then that he had the same indescribable feeling in his stomach that he had after his nightmares. 

Was it a nightmare? Somehow? 

He pushed the thought away. He would shower and get ready for school. 

When he walked in, Jason was staring at him from the back of the room with a grin that looked… hungry, almost. Tim blushed when he caught his eye and sat down in his seat. 

So apparently he hadn’t ruined it. If that look was anything to go by, Jason was just as into it as he was. Pulling out his phone, Tim realised that he didn’t have Jason’s contact info in his phone. To rectify this, he scribbled his number on a piece of paper and handed to Kristing, the girl who sat behind him. He motioned for her to pass it to Jason. 

Tim hadn’t ever passed a note before. Was that actually a thing that people still did? Should he have written “Will you be my boyfriend? Circle yes or no.” on it. 

His phone lit up on his desk with a text message.

/Want to do something after school?/

They decided to go see a movie. Which was probably best since Tim’s mind was occupied with equal parts Jason and his weird ghost vision from this morning. It was hard to pay attention to the movie, but at least he wasn’t having to make conversation. His mind raced a million miles a minute, quieted slightly when Jason’s arm draped around his shoulders. 

When the movie was over, they went out to Tim’s car.

“Do you want to do anything else?” He asked. 

“Are you alright?,” Jason asked, “Because i’ve been all fake confident today, which I thought was a good idea. Now I’m realizing that it could be some weird kind of pressure that I’m putting on you.”

Fake confident. That was so damn cute. 

“No. no.” Tim said, “I didn’t realize it was fake. It doesn’t have anything to do with you. I have just been having some weird dreams lately and its… well if I’m kind of out of it, that’s why.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Tim was going to say that it was okay, but he realized that, yes, he did want to talk about it. 

“I have these dreams,” he started, “And it’s like I’m in some other world. Everything seems so familiar, but it's bad. I’ll watch awful things happen or something bad will happen to me. It’ll be like I’m flying, and then it stops and there is this guy holding a knife to my neck and saying these awful things to me. Or there will be these people that I feel like a know who are dead. A girl in a purple suit, or a guy in a black shirt with a red “s”. It feels so real.”

The stare that Jason is giving him… intense. Like maybe Tim is oversharing with someone he hardly knows. 

“Sorry. That was a lot.”

“No, I just… I have dreams like that too.” 

Tim’s jaw drops. That was the last response he was expecting. The dreams were weird right? It wasn’t a thing that everyone had, but Jason did. 

“What happens, In yours?”

Jason went a little pale, “A lot of different things. There's always people in costumes. And I look different. It’s still me, but I’m older. I have scars, like, everywhere. It's like… I don’t know. I try not to think about it. Freaks my mom out though. She always wakes up to me screaming. The other day I was yelling a name in my sleep. Bruce. I haven’t even met someone named Bruce before.”

It sounded like Jason was have similar dreams to Tim. Not exactly the same but… It was probably nothing. Probably just more common than he had realized.

He thought about Jason as he laid in bed that night. They were so similar. Like they had come from some alien world and they were finding each other again. Maybe people could have soulmates. Maybe it was meant to be. It was silly. He knew that it was silly to think about, but there had to be something right? Or else, what was this feeling he had all of the sudden?

He let his mind wander, didn’t try to stop it. He let himself fantasize, because that's what dumb teenagers were supposed to do. 

And then an epiphany struck. An old memory popped into his head. Something that was important, though he had no idea why. He just had a feeling.

He wandered down to his mom’s office. She was probably still up. She always stayed up after Tim and his father went to sleep.

“What are you doing up?” She asked.

“Well, I,” He started, not sure how to bring up the question he wanted to ask. 

“Is everything all right?”

“Yes, yeah. Of course. I just… Do you remember when we went to Haly’s circus?”

She thought for a moment, and then her mouth spread into a wide grin. 

“You were so young, I’m surprised you remember, but I may have…” She spun around in her chair and pulled a box out of one of the cabinets behind her. She rifled through it for a moment before pulling out a picture. 

It was him. With a man and a woman. 

“The Flying Graysons. You were so amazed by them. They were a duo, husband and wife, acrobats. They did an amazing trapeze routine that night. You were so excited, even before the show. So they took a picture with you. 

Tim took the picture when she handed it to him. It was him. He was young and the two of them were standing there with him, but something about it was off. He didn’t know why, but he had a feeling. 

“Can I have this?”

  
“Sure,” She said, “But you need to go to bed. It’s late.”

He nodded, hugged her goodnight, then ran upstairs. 

He stared at the picture, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Eventually he got tired and fell asleep, setting the picture on the nightstand.


	4. Chapter 4

_ Tim’s eyes flutter open. He is on some sort of medical cot, can feel itchy sheets. He doesn’t even get the chance to try to figure out where he is before he hears Jason next to him. _

_ “Looks like we’re back,” Jason says. Tim doesn’t know what that means, but his mouth responds anyways, _

_ “Not for long. Never for long.” _

_ “Fine by me.” _

_ “How can you say that? It isn’t real.” _

_ Jason doesn’t say anything. He just stares. He looks different, older.  _

_ “It isn’t real, It’s time to go.” _

_ “Tim, you look so tired here. We don’t have to stay. Maybe it isn’t real, but we are. Isn’t that enough?. We couldn’t be together if we went back, you know that.” _

__

_“Jason, I-”_

Tim woke up. Before he could finish his sentence. He didn’t know what it was going to be. He didn’t know what he was talking about, but he felt… wrong.

Rather than laying in bed and thinking more about that, Tim got up. He didn’t even look at the time as he went to his desk and started up his computer, grabbing the picture off of his nightstand. 

The Flying Graysons. Nothing. 

There was nothing online, no news articles, event websites, not even a twitter. He thought of every possible search term that he could. Acrobats, couple, husband and wife, circus, family, trapeze. Nothing. No flying Graysons, no haly’s circus.

He paced around his room, trying to think of something, anything that would have been left behind. There was one picture. Nothing else. He flipped it over and found a date.

When he looked for news from then, he found a distinct lack of coverage from around that time. There were daily newspapers that didn’t have any publications on random days and weeklies that were missing altogether. 

  
He jotted down a list of dates missing on a scrap of paper and went to get dressed. 

He got into his car and finally glimpsed the time. It was almost four in the morning. Gotham Universities Library was open 24 hours a day and they had better archives than the city. 

One of the librarians led him to the back room, where he found a cabinet labelled _The Gotham Globe._ He rifled through them until there he came across a front page story that made his heart stop in his chest. 

_ Son of Flying Graysons Adopted by Billionaire Bruce Wayne After Tragic Accident _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one was short. I will be uploading another chapter tomorrow that is going to be longer. The story is growing and I honestly don't know how long it will end up being. I am thinking about making this a series, so I have been letting that stir around in my head.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I wanted to write a highschool AU, but I also wanted it to be angsty so here we go. IDK how good I am at seeding information, so if you didn't catch it, this isn't real. Hence Jason and Tim both having loving and supporting families.  
> I'm trying my hand at a bit of a mystery. I really hope you enjoyed this and I will try to even update it consistently. We'll see.


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